Robert Jones: Do you remember the age when you first got interested in the sports of boxing? How did you become interested?

Bob Canobbio: "I remember watching Friday night fights on my Dad's black & white 13" TV. I was 13 years old. Bob Foster nailed Dick Tiger with a monster left hook that literally starched Tiger. He was able to move only his upper body, his legs weren't cooperating and he was counted out. That dramatic KO left quite an impact on me and, on Tiger as well."

RJ: You have been involved with boxing for many years. What are some of the other jobs you've held in the sport before you started your work with CompuBox?

BC: "I worked as a researcher at Sports Illustrated from 1979-84 before myself and Logan Hobson, who left the company in 2002, started CompuBox in 1985. While at Sports Illustrated, I met Ross Greenburg, now President of HBO Sports. He was a producer then and hired me to research the ‘Boxing's Best' series. When we developed the CompuBox punch counting system we went back to Ross and he hired us, thus the birth of CompuBox. HBO was our only contract until ESPN came along in 1989, so during some lean times in the late 80's, myself and Logan took a job painting boats. I can still hear that howling March wind whipping through that boatyard. I also had a very brief stint as a substitute teacher. I was assigned the in-school suspension misfits. Midway thru my first day of class, a mischievous "student" dropped a match into the ventilation system that produced a minor fire. I was out of there before the fire alarm went off and never looked back."

RJ: What gave you the idea to start a punch tracking system?

BC: "We got the idea from a tennis program. This was 1984 when "portable computers" (not laptops) were in their infancy. We figured boxing really had no statistics other than the tale of the tape. A friend of mine, Bob Orf, a programmer and catcher on my modified softball team, wrote the original program. We wanted to keep it simple for accuracy, yet wanted to incorporate the essentials of boxing, the jab and power punch."

RJ: Pretty much every boxing fan knows what CompuBox is but few know exactly how it works. Can you tell us how it works?

BC: "There's two operators who take one fighter each. Each operator has four keys: jab connect, jab miss, power punch connect, power punch miss. Again we're watching one fighter each. As the rounds progress, the jabs and power shots are counted producing stats such as total punches thrown, connected and percentage, jabs thrown, connected and percentage and power punches thrown, connected and percentage."

RJ: In your estimation, how often do the punch stats, compare with the outcome of the fight? As in, if boxer "A" landed more and with a better percentage, how often does boxer "A" win?

BC: "In 21 years of counting (every punch counts!) we've learned that 95 percent of the time, the fighter who throws and lands the most total punches wins the fight. Percentages aren't always a factor, since a fighter can throw and land fewer punches than his opponent, but land the higher percentage and lose the fight. It's more about total punches thrown and landed."

RJ: Do you think commentators sometimes rely on CompuBox numbers when giving their opinion of what is going on in the fight?

BC: "That's really not for me to say. We provide the stats and the production people do what they want with them. I will say this, if the numbers weren't accurate, they wouldn't lean on them the way they do."

RJ: Have you ever gone back and revisited some of the older fights, like Ali-Frazier, or even farther back, and tracked the punch stat numbers just for the heck of it?

BC: Yes we have. For instance: Ali-Frazier III combined to land a CompuBox heavyweight record 797 total punches (57 combined punches landed per round- 23 more per round than the heavyweight average of 34 combined punches landed per round). Ray Robinson landed 442 total punches against Jake LaMotta in the infamous St. Valentine's Massacre fight, that's 34 punches landed per round- nearly double the middleweight avg. of 18 punches landed per round. More stats are available in the 2006 CompuBox record book available from the store at CompuBoxonline.com."

RJ: What kind of changes would you like to see in the scoring of amateur boxing?

BC: "Honestly? Hire a proven commodity in CompuBox. Chowdhry and his banditos ripped off the CompuBox concept after we worked the 1988 Seoul Olympics for NBC. Only they weren't as smart as they thought they were. The geniuses have one inexperienced judge counting the connects for BOTH fighters. No can do. We learned that 21 years ago. They miss more connects then they count, producing scores of 8-6, 11-9. They've made amateur boxing unwatchable. It's like watching a fencing match, one punch at a time. This has produced a disastrous ripple effect. Announcers calling the fight see punches landed, yet nothing is registered. They look bad. In turn, you see less and less amateur boxing televised, therefore making it nearly impossible to develop a fan base for amateur fighters once they turn pro. Who can forget the 1976 Montreal Olympics in prime time on ABC? The U.S. won something like six straight gold medals. Ray Leonard, Michael Spinks, Leon Spinks, Howard Davis were household names when they turned pro. Why? Because their Olympic finals were in prime time- on network TV. We need to restore creditability back to amateur boxing, and it starts with the scoring system. The current system stinks!"

RJ: How much do you think it hurts a network, or company, if they choose not to use CompuBox on their events?

BC: "Well it surely doesn't help the production, that's for sure. I'm sure fans are used to seeing the Compubox stats after each and every round on HBO, ESPN, OLN and assorted other regional boxing telecasts."

RJ: If there is anything you would like to add, please feel free to do it now.

BC: "CompuBox is striving to take its product to the next level and is currently in the process of incorporating "impact technology" into the current punch counting system. CompuBox will soon be able to tell boxing fans not only how many punches were thrown and landed…but how hard each punch was as well. Stay tuned."